A jewelers loupe or any 10 x magnifiying lense should reveal some black specks in the diamonds, unless they are exceptionaly clean, like vvs1 or better. Alot of rubies will have a milky cast running through them or a slight purplish tint. Take it to a pawn shop, they will loupe it and tell you if its real. If the gold is 18k, chances are its real, 14k 50/50, 10k probably lab created rubies. It isnt particularly old, probably the 60's 70's or later. Now, if the rubies are real, and if they are burmese, then it actually would be fairly valuable. But you would e to send them off to a gemological appraiser to determine the origin. Thats all I got.

MM - I'm not surprised that know what you're talking about. My other expert had similar opinions...the better the gold, the higher the probability that we are dealing with real gems of some variety.

She also noticed that the high placement of the prongs suggested that they were meant to secure real gems, not fakes.

The stamp on the ring is "14KP" which she said means it's pure gold, not plated.

She also agreed that the "down and dirty" way to get it appraised is to take it to a few pawn shops. That will give us the absolute rock bottom value and tell us whether it would be worth getting a full, professional appraisal.